DON'T FEAR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

I have read and listened to various views on Initiated Measure 4, the
medical marijuana initiative, and what I've noticed from the folks
against this is that their only real message is fear.

This is for sick and dying people, not people with routine medical
concerns. Someone with chronic pain usually has a severe medical
condition that causes it, a condition that by definition can't be
cured or relieved by ordinary treatments.

I'm one of them, a Gulf War veteran exposed to nerve agents. As a
result, I suffer from a degenerative muscular disease that ended my
career and will likely cut my life short.

I've been prescribed virtually every FDA-approved narcotic and opiate.
These prescription painkillers not only have failed to relieve my deep
inner-muscle pain, they left me in a fog, unable to function. I could
even not remember what my family said the day before. Moderate amounts
of medical marijuana ease my pain and suffering while still allowing
me to interact with my family and friends and remember and enjoy those
moments that soon will be gone.

In a White House-commissioned report on medical marijuana, the
Institute of Medicine found "there will likely always be a
subpopulation of patients who do not respond well to other
medications." That's me.

The claims that marijuana is a gateway drug, and that letting patients
use it will somehow lead to mass drug addiction, are ridiculous. The
biggest advantage of medical marijuana is that it is not highly addictive.

Equally wrong is the suggestion that allowing the use of medical
marijuana will increase teen marijuana use. Eleven states have medical
marijuana laws, and none have seen an increase in teen use. In fact,
teen use has dropped almost across the board.

This is an issue of compassion. That's why numerous religious
denominations - including the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian
Church (USA) and the Methodist Church - support allowing the medicinal
use of marijuana.

Vote "yes" on Measure 4.

Valerie Hannah

Hill City